The Cranston Rotary Club has begun its annual food drive, gathering donations of food from elementary schools across the city to donate to local pantries.

Titled “Share the Love” because of its start around Valentine’s Day, the project has grown and spread across the city, helping many of the local food pantries at a time of scarcity, says Tom Glasgow, president of the Cranston Rotary Club.

Glasgow says one thing the Rotary Club has learned from its relationships with groups it partners with is that there are certain times of the year that are critical to these pantries, when their inventories are thinnest.

“And one of those times in the year is right now, because we're coming out of the holiday season when they're absolutely maxed out,” Glasgow said. “And so, when you come into January, February, March, the inventories are at their lowest.”

The drive runs for two weeks, and all 15 elementary schools in Cranston participate. In each school, the classroom that collects the most items gets a pizza party as a reward.

“That's a really fun part,” Glasgow said. “The kids have such pride in it, and they're the real heroes of the drive, these families that are bringing stuff in. And even one goes a long way to helping somebody out there. It's one of the great things we do, I think.”

Glasgow says the food drive is one of his favorite events of the year. He says it is a way for people to see the symmetry in the community and that it is something that the kids, pantries and schools all look forward to.

Each school starts the drive at a different time, and when its drive ends, the school throws its pizza party.  At the parties, Glasgow says, the kids are laughing, and they talk about what they did with the drive, what it does for their community and the importance of it.

“Last year at Orchard Farms, there were two classrooms that went above and beyond,” Glasgow said. “There was, I think, 500 pieces [contributed] in one and 400 pieces in another. So we celebrated both classrooms.”

Since Glasgow has been at the club going on seven years now, they’ve held the drive. According to him, the only year they didn’t do it was in 2021, during the pandemic. Every year, it has grown, especially with the number of local organizations that participate.

Glasgow said the Rotary Club started with one pantry – Comprehensive Community Action Program (CCAP), and now it works with a lot more, from the MAE Organization to the Blessed Mother Mary Food Pantry to Operation Stand Down, a nonprofit group that helps homeless and at-risk veterans, which learned about the food drive after coming to speak at the club.

Glasgow said the Rotary Club dropped off 1,000 items to Operation Stand Down last week from Woodridge Elementary School, which he says has been amazing with the drive every year.

According to Glasgow, Operation Stand Down helps 200 veterans and their families every month. He said club members also brought 1,000 items to the MAE organization.

With 40 members in the club, Glasgow says the Rotary is fortunate to have such a great group where everybody chips in and they’re in it to give back to the community.

Asked what the club is all about, Glasgow said: “Raising funds to give back to the community and then doing work in the community that directly impacts the community.”

With Garden City Elementary School just starting its drive this week to Woodridge School’s upcoming pizza party, Glasgow says, “seeing the impact that it has through our partners, through our families that are impacted by it, that's the most rewarding part.”